Professional services firms suffer from a unique challenge at employee performance appraisal time… Consultants, accountants, architects and lawyers typically work on many different accounts or projects, continually moving on to new teams with different leaders. For many firms, continually moving people on to new projects under different leaders is the only possible way to operate. But the implication is that the traditional boss is missing. When it is time to give formal feedback to [...]

Think of implementing systematic succession planning as making a long-term organizational change. Succession planning requires more of a commitment to a longer-term, strategic view of how to meet talent needs than short-term, and sometimes panic-driven, efforts to fill vacancies as they occur. It can be established and operated using ten key steps that have been field-tested in many organizations, industries, and economic sectors.

• Step One: A first step for any systematic succession effort is to [...]

Almost nobody looks forward to completing annual empoyee performance appraisals, but the stress and effort associated with them can be greatly reduced if a few common mistakes are avoided.

Employee performance appraisals are just a single point in the performance management process, which should be an ongoing process within any organization. At the heart of this process is consistent, efficient and strategically-driven communication between managers and employees. It would seem like common sense that [...]